BOXING; Ruiz Loses the Crowd Early, Then Loses His Title to Toney

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: May 1, 2005

This is the way it was for John Ruiz last night. Ruiz, one of three nearly anonymous heavyweight champions, was lustily booed by the Madison Square Garden crowd before he had even thrown a punch at James Toney.

The crowd was prepared for the 33-year-old Ruiz's ugly style; he is as apt to clinch his opponent as he is to punch him.

A Ruiz opponent must expect to spend nearly the whole bout in his arms.

There were no kisses when the 12th round ended, but there was a new champion. Toney scored a unanimous decision to win the World Boxing Association title, with two judges scoring the fight 116-111 and the third scoring it 115-112.

Toney is the third former middleweight to win a heavyweight championship. Ruiz was previously beaten for the heavyweight title in 2003 by another former middleweight, Roy Jones Jr.

After the fight, Ruiz's trainer, Norman Stone, railed at criticism of Ruiz and said Ruiz would retire. ''John's done, and farewell,'' he said.

Toney, 36, who is only 5 feet 9 inches, has now won titles in the heavyweight, cruiserweight, middleweight and super middleweight division.

Toney's personality is clearly more electric than Ruiz's. He is a loud, profane trash talker who mocked Ruiz's Puerto Rican ancestry last week and nearly got into a fight with Stone. Toney did not make it a fascinating bout, though. Instead, the two slogged their way through 12 mostly stultifying rounds, but for most of them, Toney was able to beat Ruiz to the punch, and avoided being in too many clinches.

Toney was also more adept on his feet, compared with the lumbering Ruiz, but he was in far from svelte shape; at 233 pounds, 8 pounds lighter than Ruiz, he had a flabby midsection.

''I only had four and a half weeks to train or I would have knocked him out,'' Toney said. ''I didn't expect much from John because he's an average fighter. John Ruiz is stupid. He can't change his style. He only knows how to fight one way.''

He added, ''I want Klitschko,'' referring to Vitali, the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion. ''I will fight anyone, anywhere, at any time,'' he said. Toney (69-4-1) proved to be the more accurate fighter by far, landing 138 of 244 power punches, or 57 percent. Ruiz connected on 63 of 224 punches, or 28 percent, according to CompuBox. Over all, Toney landed 195 of 435 punches, or 45 percent, compared with Ruiz, who connected with 139 of his 563 punches, or 25 percent.

''He's a tough guy to fight,'' Ruiz (41-6-1) said. ''He moves around a lot. I connected a lot. I finished stronger and won the fight.''

Ruiz's unstylish approach to boxing kept the fans jeering him throughout. Although he didn't clinch as much as he usually does, he was nonetheless booed roundly each time he pulled Toney into a clinch.

In the later rounds, most of Toney's punches were greeted with clamorous cheers from the half-filled arena.

Neither fighter appeared to be hurt. No one was bloodied. Toney seemed to score a knockdown to open the seventh, but a replay showed that he punched Ruiz and stepped on his foot as he was slipping.

The final image of the fight came in the last few seconds as Ruiz clasped Toney in one final clinch against the ropes. The crowd, still dissatisfied, let out a final jeer.

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On the undercard, Luis Perez retained his International Boxing Federation junior bantamweight title with a sixth-round knockout of Luis Bolano. Vicente Mosquera won a unanimous decision over Yodsanan Nanthachai for the W.B.A. super featherweight title. In heavyweight bouts, Larry Donald and Ray Austin fought to a majority draw; and Davarryl Williamson scored a second-round technical knockout of Derrick Jefferson.

Photo: James Toney, left, landing a punch against John Ruiz. Toney was the more accurate fighter in last night's bout. (Photo by Jason Szenes for The New York Times)